The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Robots are no longer only used in manufacturing. Increasingly, robots have been used in hospitality, medicine, and transportation of goods. Some robots, such as those designed and manufactured by Savioke, Inc. of San Jose, Calif., are wheeled machines that transport goods within a campus, such as a hotel or hospital. These robots are deployed by computer or human operators to complete a task, such as delivering hot towels to a guest room. Once deployed, a particular robot may navigate a building or a set of buildings from its current location to its destination.
In order to navigate to its destination, the robot uses data defining a layout of the campus or environment. The data may be stored in the form of a digital map of a campus, building, or floor within a building. However, the robot may be limited to delivering to a stationary target such as a guest room. There is a need in the robotics field to provide robot navigation to mobile targets.